A Celebration of Diversity through the Arts

On Saturday, 18th April 2015, children and young people from all over Northamptonshire joined forces to showcase a variety of fantastic performances celebrating cultural diversity in the county.The event, which was organised by the Association of Northamptonshire Supplementary Schools (ANSS Ltd.) and took place at Northampton High School. It was a wonderful opportunity for the children and young people to showcase their talents.

Almost 2,000 young people aged between three and 18 years attend one of ourNorthamptonshire member supplementary schools every weekend. These schools are community based and endeavour to keep language and culture alive by giving young people the opportunity to not only learn about their language and heritage, but also to increase their self-confidence and feeling of being well-integrated, while having fun and making new friends at the same time.There are currently 23 member supplementary schools in Northamptonshire. In Northampton members include the Arabic, two Bengali, Chinese, Ghanaian, Greek, Gujarati, Latvian, Lituanian, Polish, Punjabi, Russian, Somali, Tamil and Ukrainian schools. In Corby there are Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish and Serbian schools. In Kettering we have a Polish school and our centre in Wellingborough comprises Gujarati, Polish and WACA (African Caribbean).

The performances featured students from supplementary schools in Northampton, Kettering, Corby and Wellingborough. There were also information stands displaying the rich and diverse culture within Northamptonshire.'We are certain you will thoroughly enjoy the performances and maybe even learn a little something you didn’t already know about a different community’ said Yasmin Abouzanad from the ANSS Youth Forum. ‘The schools partaking have been working long and hard to produce something to share with you all today that shows something about their culture and tradition and we hope you have as great a time watching them as we have had and enjoy the show.’

‘I would like to give a massive thank you and well done to all students that took part today, on stage and behind the curtains, and of course to the teachers,’ said Alaa Abouzanad, chairman of the ANSS and head of Northampton Arabic School. ‘A big thank you also to all the parents who came to show their support and brought their children along ready to perform and lastly thank you to all the guests who came to share this great event with us, again I hope you had a great time and I am looking forward to seeing you all at the next event.’ Jane Badger and Wray Irwin from the University of Northampton presented the ANSS Youth Forum with the prestigious Ruby Changemaker Student Award. Wray Irwin said ‘This is in recognition of their work in successfully setting up a Youth Forum to give a voice to the young people who attend supplementary schools.’

Cllr Joan Kirkbride, the Chair of Northamptonshire County Council, highlighted how important it was for young people to have a link to their country of origin.Cllr June Derbyshire, the Deputy Mayor of Kettering, praised the young people’s performances as well as their attitude, respect and enthusiasm for learning.The Mayor of Corby, Cllr Anthony Dady, pointed out how much commitment and enthusiasm the students showed for maintaining their culture and language learning.The Mayor of Wellingborough, Cllr Jim Bass, highlighted how vital it was to understand the importance of attending a supplementary school to give young people the best possible start in life.

‘I am sure you will agree the hard work put into those performances surely paid off, they were fantastic’ Adam Abouzanad from the ANSS Youth Forum pointed out. ‘The different pieces of drama, dance and music we saw from each culture was splendid, and if you’ve learnt one thing it’s that ANSS kids know how to put on a show!’All schools who took part are members of the Association of Northamptonshire Supplementary Schools, the umbrella organisation that supports their work. The ANSS ensures that staff have enhanced DBS clearance and offer training and support in all areas, including first aid, child protection and safeguarding.

The member supplementary schools who took part in Saturday's performance were: